Maybe Religion’s Not That Bad…?

In case you missed This American Life this week, there was a really interesting story by David Ellis Dickerson. (It begins around the 8:38 mark.)

David had “rejected the evangelical Christianity of his family” but was now coming home to see them again, ready to fight back against their religious arguments, expecting to win that battle easily.

After a conversation with his father, though, he ended up coming down a notch or two.

There’s one passage worth noting even though it speaks favorably about religion. After David reflects upon his dad’s Christianity (in the face of all its logical problems), he tries to see faith from his dad’s perspective:

The thing about the Bible is it’s huge. I could poke at it because I could pick at anything I wanted. You know, talking snakes, Virgin Birth, but eventually I came around to thinking, “Well, maybe religion doesn’t have to be consistent. Maybe you can just like it enough for it to be good.”

You know, maybe religion can be something more like, like, I’m a big Star Trek fan, and if you ask me, I would say, like, “I love Star Trek.” But if you ask me to defend individual episodes, I would be at a loss, because I can’t go to bat for everything that Star Trek did. I just love the concept…